Responding to text can take many forms, write literacy experts Brenda Krupp, Lynne Dorfman and Aileen Hower. Teachers want to encourage sincere, honest responses where students share their thoughts, feelings, opinions, and insights about the fiction and nonfiction they read.
In his fourth post in a series exploring ways that digital literacy impacts teaching and learning in the middle grades, Jason DeHart considers a wide range of digital texts (including music, visuals, film, video) and notes changing trends in engagement among his students.
While integrating imaginative writing into ELA classrooms may seem fanciful in a school culture that prioritizes the expository and analytical, teacher/coach Ariel Sacks shows how regular story creation can become a powerful developmental force in the lives of adolescents.
History & social studies / Resources
by Susan Curtis · Published 02/10/2024 · Last modified 02/21/2024
African Americans faced severe repression when Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week in 1926. In this updated MiddleWeb resource, we share links that trace the impact of African Americans in politics, arts and sciences, and report on the call to teach Black history throughout the school year.
In middle school some gifted students find themselves lost in an urban maze without sufficient navigational support. GT facilitator Sharon Ratliff shares some teaching techniques and conversational strategies that can help them stay on the road that leads to academic success.
Embracing failure is a mindset we can weave throughout the curriculum, teaching students that failing isn’t the end but a crucial step toward success. STEAM author-educator Kara Ball shares three activities to help students in persevering through and even celebrating failure.
Jeny Randall introduces her 6th graders to Shakespeare, first tossing quotes around a circle, then character mapping, and finally prepping and presenting scenes. Keying into themes of Identity and Origin, she rotates among 3 comedies’ mistaken identities. The kids love it!
Alison Dover and Fernando Rodrigues-Valls highlight the gaps in current education policy and practice that affect newcomer and plurilingual students and then offer ways to equitably meet those students’ needs. TESOL educator Kimberlee Elder is grateful for their book.
Ron Williamson and Barbara Blackburn describe ways leaders can effectively advocate for schools by developing strategic alliances with local officials, internal groups in schools and external groups in the community. It can be time consuming but definitely worth the effort!
As she describes some ways she’s begun to work fun, ethical AI components into major assignments, Sarah Cooper wonders how the nature of learning and teaching will evolve in tandem with the evolution of Large Language Models. How do we best prepare our students for the future?
